Reports: Dallas cop-killer a follower of Nation of Islam

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Micah Xavier Johnson, the 25-year-old veteran who told Dallas police he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” followed and “liked” the Facebook pages for the founder of the Nation of Islam and the Black Riders Liberation Party, organizations classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Times added:

In addition to his interest in separatist groups, Johnson had “liked” a page for the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, named for the Black Panther Party’s co-founder. The group, founded last year, teaches its members self-defense and conducts what it calls “armed patrols” through neighborhoods where the police have killed black men.

In a press release issued last year, the group said police agencies with officers who shoot and kill black people “protect the interests of the ruling class, much as they did in the past with slave patrols in the South and strike breakers in the late 19th and early 20th century.”

“We’d never seen him and we don’t know him,” said member Erick Khafre by phone. “The gun club isn’t affiliated with him in any way.”

The Santa Monica Observer reported:

Among the five suspects now in Dallas Police custody are self described “Islamic Americans” who attended a Nation of Islam mosque in the South Dallas area. It should be noted that the Nation of Islam itself is splintered into several groups. Louis Farrakhan, who took over the organization in 1981, subscribes to Dianetics and appears to have left Islam altogether. It’s ideology is barely recognizable as Islamic.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings identified the shooter as Micah X. Johnson. “Micah X.” appears to have been named after Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X. a member of the Nation of Islam. “While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952, quickly rose to become one of the organization’s most influential leaders.”

Just hours before the attack in Dallas, Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan posted:

“When you are willing and not afraid anymore to pay the price for freedom — don’t let this white man tell you that violence is wrong,” Farrakhan said. “Every damn thing that he got, he got it by being violent — killing people, raping and robbing and murdering. He’s doing it as we speak, and then he has the nerve to come and tell us that violence and hatred won’t get it. Don’t buy that!”

Speaking about white people as one entity, Farrakhan proclaimed, “He is worthy to be hated.” He also claimed that “God hates,” and man is no better than God.